Market adoption of wireless LAN (WLAN) technology has exploded, as users from a wide range of backgrounds and vertical industries have brought this technology into their homes, offices, and increasingly into the public air space. This inflection point has highlighted not only the limitations of earlier-generation systems, but also the changing role WLAN technology now plays in people's work and lifestyles, across the globe. Indeed, WLANs are rapidly changing from convenience networks to business-critical networks. Increasingly users are depending on WLANs to improve the timeliness and productivity of their communications and applications, and in doing so, require greater visibility, security, management, and performance from their network. As enterprises and other entities increasingly rely on wireless networks, the proper deployment and configuration of wireless access points in a wireless network environment becomes critical to performance and security.
The wireless clients or mobile stations that access wireless networks can vary significantly relative to their functionality and capabilities. For example, many types of computing devices now include wireless network interfaces, such as laptops, personal digital assistants, cellular phones, printers, etc. Given the wide variety of wireless clients and the rapid advancement of wireless technology in general, the wireless clients serviced by a wireless network at any given time will span a wide variety of access modes and capabilities. For example, WLAN clients may support IEEE 802.11b WLAN access, while other wireless clients support the 802.11g standard, which features faster data rates. Of course, there may also be a variety of other functional differences between wireless clients (e.g., mixed-mode 11n vs. greenfield 11n, devices capable of adjusting one or more of transmit power, receiver sensitivity, and Clear-Channel-Assessment sensitivity (High-Density-capable) vs. HD-incapable devices, or low-velocity vs. high-velocity). This wide range of capabilities poses certain problems. For example, one problem is that the presence of low-functionality wireless clients may impair the ability of high-functionality clients to operate at maximum performance, because the operational parameters of the wireless network must be downgraded to operate with the lowest common denominator in order to provide service to all clients. This can prevent higher functionality clients from taking advantage of their higher capabilities and therefore reduces performance of the wireless network.
Accordingly, it is sometimes desirable to deploy two independent networks: a lowest-common denominator or overlay network, and a high-functionality or underlay network. It is assumed that all wireless clients can use the overlay network if need be, but that the higher-functionality clients will preferentially select the underlay network wherever possible. Partitioning of wireless access points into overlay and underlay networks, however, can be quite complicated. Desirably, a network administrator should partition the wireless access points in a manner that provides high-functionality clients with higher levels of network service, but does not unduly sacrifice radio frequency (RF) coverage across the different layers of network access. Furthermore, given the dynamic nature of RF environments, this partitioning task may require frequent adjustments to achieve desired performance levels.
In light of the foregoing, a need in the art exists for methods, apparatuses, and systems that facilitate the partitioning of wireless access points into overlay and underlay networks. Embodiments of the present invention substantially fulfill this need.